2018 Wrap-Up: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Happy New Year!

Now that we’ve toasted, watched the ball drop, and sung Auld Lang Syne to our hearts’ content, it’s time to talk 2019.

But first, we wanted to do a 2018 wrap-up of our business. We’ve found that it can be super helpful to see what went well and what didn’t for other businesses, so we thought we’d pull back the curtain on North Star.

The good…

🎉 We capped off 2018 with our best quarter ever {Q4} and best month ever {December} in terms of biz revenue. Talk about ending with a bang!

🤸‍♀️ We grew! We began our transformation into a copywriting agency with two new writers and we’re continuing to transition into a Clockwork-driven business model.

💣 We stepped into the role of leaders and gave others the framework to do the same through our Leader Up! membership. {Get on the waitlist here.}

🧠 We really owned the internal mindset work we’d spent so much time agonizing over in 2017.

❤️ We hosted our second client retreat — this year in the beautiful, techy townmecca of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

🇫🇷 We rung in 2018 in Paris together, which was… you know… amazing.

⛰️ We went on a mid-year camping trip in Flagstaff, which was also 100% delightful.

📖 On a personal note, we finished writing our novel and are ready to begin the querying process of landing an agent and getting traditionally published. {Learn more here.}

A few highlights from 2018.

The bad…

💳 We didn’t pay off biz debts as fast as we’d hoped. Still, we’re grateful for what that borrowed money allowed us to invest in, and we wouldn’t have changed a thing.

🌧️ Marie received a clinical depression diagnosis this year, which is actually a good thing, because it allowed her to identify WTH has been going on and get an action plan in place.

The ugly…

💸 Our first quarter was the pits, in terms of revenue. There were plenty of nights spent in tears, browsing Indeed for jobs out of desperation. Not even kidding, wish we were.

But even this had a silver lining, because it led us to creative strategies for finding new clients. One of them — collaborating with agencies — has broken a biz record for providing us the most revenue in the least amount of time. Despite the rocky start, we ended 2018 having one of our best years ever.

This challenging quarter also helped us realize we needed to get more strategic about our biz model and lead generation strategy.

Our 2018 Words of the Year

Here’s how our 2018 Words of the Year played out for both of us.

👋 Jessi here. My 2018 word was Trust and it tested me in literally every way possible. From the beginning, I felt like I was being thrown into situations that were out of my control. Which, as a bit of a control freak, was… um… annoying. I wanted to trust on my turns, darnit.

Eventually, I started to learn that the more I tried to control everything around me {my relationship, the business, right down to how many walks the dogs received per day}, the harder everything became.

When I took a deep breath, loosened my grip, and trusted everything fell into place. I’m still working on it. Honestly, ‘Trust’ might be the word of my life. But I feel SO good about where I am today compared to this time last year.

👋 Marie here. My 2018 word was Thrive. It started off as a bust in just about every way. Depression was in full swing, revenue was pitiful, and I was miserable personally and professionally.

Slowly, as I gained new resources through counseling and I tapped into the mindset work I’d done thanks to mentors like Lisa Carpenter and Tania Gerard, I began to emerge from the funk. As I did, business picked back up, I found a local community of other fiction writers, I began to meet local entrepreneurs, and fell back in love with myself and my life.

Ultimately, I thrived more than I thought possible this year.

Now, let’s talk 2019.

What’s going on behind the scenes…

We keep singing the praises of Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, and that’s because we love Mike Michalowicz’s work and are wholeheartedly embracing the model in his newest book. It’s perfect timing for us. We’re proceeding with increased strategy and mindfulness in 2019. Our agency model is growing and we’re fully stepping into our role as the CEOs of our company.

On the front lines…

Our copywriting calendar is already booking up FAST. As of two weeks ago, we were already slating clients into March — and that’s even with our increased capacity thanks to the new writers on board. Things are busy, so if you want to work with us, get on our calendar pronto.

Our membership…

The Leader Up! membership will be opening its doors again for its second-ever live launch, currently scheduled for March(ish). Stay tuned! This is the ONLY way to work with us for under $1,000.

Our Words of the Year…

👋 Jessi again! My 2019 word has been hard to find! I toyed with words like “upgrade”, “teach”, “grow”, and “community”… but nothing really sat right. Finally, I settled on Lead.

It’s simple, it encompasses much of what the other words were trying to accomplish, and it gives me permission to step out of the shadows and make some powerful moves in 2019.

👋 Marie again! My 2019 word is Actualization. It literally means to make real. All those hopes and dreams of years past? Yeah, the systems are in place, the groundwork has been laid, and it’s time for me to SOAR.

Those dreams are coming real, from our most profitable year yet, to getting our novel published {or at least under contract!}.

What was your 2018 like? What will 2019 hold? What word will ground you for the next 12 months?